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Torture is "global crisis of barbarism:" Amnesty

Suleiman Ali was only 15 when soldiers seized him and took him to a northern Nigerian base known as “Guantanamo.”

There he was severely beaten, scalded with molten plastic and forced to walk and roll over broken bottles. He watched the executions of other detainees, teenagers as young as 13. When 31 were released a month later, Suleiman was the only one who survived his injuries.

Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International shows a copy of a global report on the use of torture following its launch in London, Monday. According to the organization, the report exposes how, 30 years on from the introduction of the 1984 Convention Against Torture, more than a hundred states continue to torture – with a range of tools, methods and reasons. “As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last 30 years is being eroded,” Shetty said. (Lefteris Pitarakis / The Associated Press)

Canadian Hamid Ghassemi-Shall went to visit his grieving mother in Iran and ended up in Evin Prison for more than five years. His arrest followed that of his brother, Alborz Ghassemi-Shall, who died following interrogation in Evin Prison. “It’s important to remind people that we care that torture is going on systematically in some countries as a part of their governing system,” Ghassemi-Shall said. (Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star file photo)

Neither Canada nor the U.S. has ratified the optional protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture, which establishes a system of inspection for detention centres worldwide. Nor has Canada acted on recommendations for review and oversight on cases such as Maher Arar’s, in which people were sent to torturing countries without accountability. (Tony Bock / Toronto Star file photo)

The youths were suspected of membership in Boko Haram — the vicious Islamist group that has kidnapped and murdered hundreds of school girls and boys. But, says Amnesty International, Nigeria’s use of torture is an example of why the practice is not only a crime, but makes the countries that employ it more insecure.

Tuesday, Amnesty released a report, Torture in 2014, that marks 30 years since the UN Convention Against Torture was introduced, and launched a new campaign to alert governments to the importance of eradicating the practice. In spite of some advances, the group says, torture is still a “global crisis of barbarism, failure and fear” across 141 countries.

“When countries are faced with significant national security threats, turning to torture is wrong-headed,” says Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada. “First, it doesn’t work because you get bad and misleading information. Then once you start torturing people you are careening down a slippery slope.

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“Torture destroys a person’s sense of worth, promise and hope. You are creating a world with more victims, greater marginalization and deepening divisions. It’s bad for human rights and justice, but disastrous for national security.”

The U.S. made the struggle to end torture more difficult after Sept. 11, Neve added. By condoning torture in its “war on terror,” as well as rendition of suspects to countries that routinely torture prisoners, and continued detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Washington emboldened countries as far away as Nigeria.

Neither Canada nor the U.S. has ratified the optional protocol to the torture convention, which establishes a system of inspection for detention centres worldwide. Nor has Canada acted on recommendations for review and oversight on cases such as Maher Arar’s, in which people were sent to torturing countries without accountability.

In a survey of 21,000 people in 21 countries, Amnesty found that fear of torture is pervasive, and nearly half of those questioned say they fear torture if detained. More than 80 per cent want strong laws to protect them from torture.

However, more than one-third said that torture could be justified. “Torture is not just alive and well — it is flourishing in many parts of the world,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty. “As more governments seek to justify torture in the name of national security, the steady progress made in this field over the last 30 years is being eroded.”

Of 142 countries that signed the 1984 convention, the report said, 79 are still torturing people in 2014.

“It’s important to remind people that we care that torture is going on systematically in some countries as a part of their governing system,” says Canadian Hamid Ghassemi-Shall, who was held in Iran under abusive conditions.

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The Amnesty report highlighted five countries where it will wage a campaign it believes can change government attitudes.

One is Nigeria, in which “police and military personnel use torture as a matter of routine,” the report said. The recent explosion of violence by Boko Haram has been linked with draconian campaigns by security forces.

In Mexico, which argues that “torture is the exception rather than the norm,” abuse by police and security forces is “widespread and goes unpunished,” Amnesty said.

In the Philippines, “justice is out of reach for most torture survivors.” A secret detention facility was recently exposed, in which police officers “abused detainees ‘for fun.’ ”

In Morocco and Western Sahara, authorities “rarely investigate reports of torture,” and forced confessions are extracted by methods including electric shocks and beatings.

In Uzbekistan, a former Soviet dictatorship that has been notorious for abuse, members of religious and opposition political groups are detained in inhuman conditions and tortured.

Torture can never be justified, Shetty said in a statement. “It is wrong, self-defeating and poisons the rule of law, replacing it with terror. No one is safe when governments allow its use.”

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